To Vote or Not To Vote - That is The Question (Sorry Mr. Shakespeare)

To be truthful, I don’t know who to vote for in the upcoming election!  Actually the truth of the matter is - it is doubtful that I will vote for any of the 4 people trying to achieve the office of President of the United States.  I believe so strongly in the precious right, and privilege of the vote, which we are given by our Constitution, and am feeling quite guilty that I might waste the privilege by not exercising it.

I listen to the rhetoric back and forth – not just from the candidates, but from all the Facebook and other social ‘would be and fractional media’ posts, the misrepresentations and lies of the ‘talk show gurus’ and the very bad reporting of the so called ‘professional newscasters’ and I think “who in the world would want to be President?  Certainly no sane person!

President Harry Truman was a foul mouthed son-of-a-gun.  He had no concerns about his swearing and rough talk; but then he had a short lived presidency which had major impacts on the future of the world.  What was his strength?  Well it might be summed up in the following quote:

“It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.” ― Harry Truman

Mr. Truman was concerned for the country and the lives of the people who called themselves Americans. (by the way, they were people of all backgrounds and all racial colors and were fighting in a very widespread war) But what is Mr. Truman most noted for?  The atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  Why?  Because that’s what the news media wanted you to know about!

What was Mr. Eisenhower known for?  Playing golf for 8 years; Mr. Nixon?  Leaving the Office of the Presidency in shame; Mr. Kennedy?  His assassination.  Mr. Ford?  Stumbling and falling down; Mr. Carter?  Iran hostages.  And so it goes, on and on to the current President Mr. Obama.  (let’s not forget that Mr. Bush the second, who caused New York City to be attacked by terrorists and caused Hurricane Katrina)

Has no President done any good in America?  If they had, I can’t imagine it ever being reported in a good light.

What about our current candidates:  Mrs. Clinton seems to be known for her emails, Bengasi and the lack of trustworthiness.  Mr. Trump for his blurting out of senseless verbal lines of attack and now his treatment of women in the past. (don’t forget his taxes)  Mr. Johnson, well that’s easy, his smoking pot.  Ms. Stein, well, I’m not sure what she is known for but it can’t be anything good.

So there you have it.  According to one-side-or-another of the media, nobody has done anything good!

I can’t believe that either of the two major candidates are truly all bad.  I can’t believe that they have never done anything good in their lives.  But if we take our information from the media at large (that includes Facebook and other unfettered social media), we will never know the complete and true makeup of the candidates.

One other group of folks I’d like to chastise; the Moderators for the debates!  Are you kidding me?  Do you really think I believe that you are a moderator?

 (Moderator…. Mod-er-a-tor:  an arbitrator or mediator.  2. One who moderates) Wait a minute!  (Moderate…. Mod-er-ate: one who holds moderate views, especially in politics).  To use a political expression – BS.  (Truman would not have abbreviated) 

Attention Moderators and Candidates!  We are not interested in your personal views on each other and we are not interested in how much dirt you dredge up on each other.  What we are interested in is your plans to put this Country (The United States of America, not your personal lives, in case you were not listening) back on a path to peace and prosperity.  If you can’t give us what we want, the GET THE HELL OUT OF THE RACE, so we can find someone that will work on our behalf.

So You Think You Know How to Kill Someone?

 Guns, guns, guns…. just about every day in the news, someone has been shot by another person who thinks they know how to kill someone.  What we see, other than huge mass shootings with semi-automatic weapons such as San Bernardino and now Orlando, is that more people are wounded than are killed.  According to the Brady Project statistics, every day, 297 people in America are shot in murders, assaults, suicides & suicide attempts, unintentional shootings, and police intervention.  Of the 297 (again according to the Brady report) 89 of those people die – which means that a bit ove er 70% survive.

My theory is that of all the people carrying guns, including those of you who like to hide your gun in a concealed holster, most of you don’t know how to use your firearm properly!  If you did, the ‘kill rate’ would be much higher than 30%.  Oh, by the way, don’t tell me some of these folks were trying to wound rather than kill; this isn’t some B rated black and white cowboy show, it’s real life with real people who bleed and die.

Possessing a firearm of any sort is serious business.  It’s not macho, it doesn’t give you any special license to kill – like James Bond – and it doesn’t make you a member of a militia, military force, police department or special deputized vigilante group.  You are, unless a sworn officer of the law or an actual member of the Armed Forces, just a person with a gun! 

Then there is the matter of who should have a firearm in their possession (notice I said possession not control, because I don’t believe most of you are in control of your weapon); certainly one side says ‘nobody’ and another side says ‘everybody’; both of which, in my opinion, are wrong. The answer is somewhere in the middle of this argument and allows for protection of family, hunting for sport and other firearm safe sports.

Now another crazy person has while in possession of a firearm, destroyed the lives of, thus far, 50 innocent people.  And some other crazy people are trying to justify the act by saying “well maybe it is a judgment from God”, because Pulse was a Gay club.  What arrogance that causes these people to identify God’s judgement on anyone or group.  Obviously, the ‘self-appointed prophets’ haven’t read their own Holy Writings; if they did, they would find that God is the ultimate Judge and doesn’t need their help.  Oh yes, and there are those calling for ‘open season’ on all Muslims, even if they are citizens of the United States, because some identifying as Muslims have done some horrid things. 

I recently read some statistics that said over 3 million Muslims live in the United States; please tell me how many of them actually killed other citizens of the United States; another report shows over 80 million Christians in the United States.  Of the Christians, how many have fire bombed clinics and shot doctors who perform abortions.  The point here is not political; but do we judge all people of one religion because of what a few nut cases do?

So what’s my point?  Well I have a few:

1.    There are radicals in every religion, that doesn’t mean you have to be one.

2.    Nobody has the right to murder innocent people, regardless if they live or act different than you approve.

3.    If you don’t know how to use a gun, don’t buy one!  Guns are not designed to scare, wound or control someone else’s life … they are designed to kill, and they do kill, and when they kill, those people don’t regain their lives the next day – regardless of your experience in some video game.

I am not against firearms, but I do know that our Country is totally out of control with their use and we need to do something about it!  Calling each other names, politicizing the horrid acts of crazy people and condemning a race or religion of people, has not stopped the violence.  SO WHY DO YOU KEEP DOING IT?

“Distracted from distraction by distraction” ― T.S. Eliot

We, the residents of the United States, have entered a period in our life that will baffle the historians of the future.  Like lambs being led to slaughter, we have been led into a mêlée where the citizenry cannot win.  And leading the way, that we blindly travel, is not a charismatic leader, not the leadership of the Democrats or the Republicans and not the current candidates running for President; our ‘bell cow’ is the ‘media’.

We are experiencing the most pungent use of ‘yellow journalism’ than ever before in our history.  The honorable charge of a Journalist is to provide the general public with accurate and helpful information.  While I believe that there must have been some Journalists in our past who upheld this honorable position of trust, I am convinced that today most Journalists have lost their way…..and yet we follow them, regardless of the destination; and it matters not which brand of media you prefer, as they all – the Networks, Newspapers and Online presentations, are creating a product of dangerous and false information.

Why is the foregoing happening?  Because it has become more important to Journalism to produce ratings and advertisers, than the truth.  To do that, sensationalism must be embraced rather than objective journalism; and that seems to be what the public wants to hear and see – because that’s all we see and hear.  How strong of an example is this week’s worldwide coverage of a man sitting in a tree, in downtown Seattle!  There was no reason that the world needed to see such coverage, yet all of the Networks covered it and the Public, like sheep, were glued to their Televisions and Radios, asking “why is he up there”? 

The greatest contributor to the lack of objective journalism has to be the age of technology, where anyone – including me – can be a Journalist; or are we really Journalists if all we are doing is spouting our opinions?  Walter Cronkite said “Objective journalism and an opinion column are about as similar as the Bible and Playboy magazine”! 

I admit, I am a blogger, not a Journalist.  My writings are developed, usually after I have become so disgusted with what I see on the internet and the national media.  I don’t use the backdrop of a crashed airplane, starving children or burning buildings, to get your attention.  I think; and I try to get you to think, even if in the end you don’t agree with me. 

I don’t care about ratings and I don’t sell advertising!  My copy is not embellished by pretty colored pictures, depicting the ‘good guys’ and black and white pictures depicting the ‘bad guys’, and I don’t use misleading headlines.

Recently on Facebook, there was a political cartoon showing a crowd of people pulling down the statue of the Thinker, a bronze sculpture by Auguste Rodin.  The irony was not wasted on me.  My opinion is that the crowd, in the cartoon, did not represent the general public, the ordinary citizen or our children.  The crowd represented the current state of the News Media!  Society is looking on, while the inspiration to think, is being pulled down before our very eyes by those who are supposed to provide us information that causes us to think. 

Because of our refusal to think for ourselves and allow the media to tell us what is or is not right, another quote begins to ring loud and long:  We are not educated well enough to perform the necessary act of intelligently selecting our leaders….. Walter Cronkite.

Get a Grip Folks!

Have you ever considered how truly far into the abyss we have fallen? The lack of education has to be the reason. I learned about Christmas around the world and other winter events in school. Apparently I’m part of a lost educated generation.

Christmas has been with us since the Catholic Church established it in the 4th century. The first recorded date of Christmas being celebrated on December 25th was in about 336 AD, during the time of the Roman Emperor Constantine (he was the first Christian Roman Emperor). A few years later, Pope Julius I officially declared that the birth of Jesus would be celebrated on the 25th December.

So Christmas began as a Catholic tradition and eventually adopted by other Christian denominations. So What? Does it really matter who started the tradition? Heck, Judaism started Thanksgiving, with the various harvest festivals, but we all adopted the event and eventually gave it a specific day!

DON’T TAKE THE CHRIST OUT OF CHRISTMAS BY WRITING XMAS!!!!! Oh my!. Xmas is not a secular way of writing Christmas – it comes from the Greek expression where X (the Greek letter chi) refers to Christ.

DON’T SAY MERRY CHRISTMAS! Merry means happy or joyous; why on earth would you not wish someone a happy and joyous day, whatever the day is? Like it or not, December 25 is the assigned day for Christmas. Like it or not, EVERYONE will, unless they die beforehand, find themselves experiencing December 25; this includes, Christians, Jews, Muslims and in fact ALL people. What is wrong with wishing them a happy or joyous day?

ONLY GREET WITH HAPPY HOLIDAY! Why get upset about this greeting. After all, HOLIDAY is a shortened iteration of HOLY DAY!!!!

And then there was the ridiculous uproar about Starbucks© and their coffee cups that were anti-Christian because they removed the ‘Christmas symbols’ from the cups. First of all, they weren’t Christmas symbols. Snowflakes, trees and gingerbread men, are winter symbols, not exclusively Christmas symbols. By the way, did you notice that Starbucks© cups are red and green? Those are traditional CHRISTMAS COLORS!

A few hours more than ten days to go before XMAS. Get a grip folks! If you celebrate Christmas have a happy holy day! If you don’t celebrate Christmas, have a merry day that others call Christmas.

Just remember, if you continue to argue about the day and what to say when greeting one another, Santa Claus, Pere Noel, Papai Noel, Viejo Pascuero, Dun Che Lao Ren, Kerstman, Joulupukki, Weihnachtsmann, Kanakaloka, Hoteiosho – will not come to your house, or if he/she does, you will get a stocking full of coal.

Oh my! I think I started a new controversy. 

This Is NOT a Second Amendment Issue!

The tragedy in San Bernardino is beyond comprehension!  Unfortunately, it is just one more massacre in a series of masseurs in the United States of America, this year.  The Washington Post reports on December 2: The San Bernardino shooting is the second mass shooting today and the 355th this year.  (A mass shooting is defined by the FBI as a shooting event that has 4 or more casualties).  In the early morning hours of December 2, one person was killed and three were injured in an incident in Savannah, Georgia.

Two things I know:

1)    This is not a Second Amendment issue, because nobody is suggesting legislation to take away guns, from law abiding people – despite what is written, quoted and shared on Facebook.

2)    The amped up rhetoric, hyperbole, hate speech and postings on the internet, have done absolutely no good to resolve anything and have only divided us further.   

What I don’t know is how to stop this insane execution of citizens in our Country where we have always prided ourselves in our tolerance and freedom – which is supposed to be ‘for everyone’ not just those who agree with your point of view – and I don’t think you do either.

Neither side of this argument (Left or Right, Liberal or Conservative, Christian or Secular) has a clue as to how to stop the loss of life by gunfire.  Calling the President or another Social and Religious group horrid and filthy names, has not accomplished a thing other than possibly making you look like a fool.

What to do?  First admit that you don’t have the solution either!  Start reasonable discussions that are free of incitement, and are truly are looking for a solution. 

Benjamin Watson, in his book ‘Under Our Skin, uses the phrase “this is not a skin issue, it is a sin issue”.  Although Mr. Watson was talking about another subject, I will say that the death by gunfire issue, ‘is not a gun issue, it is a heart issue’!

If you really want to stop the insanity, use your efforts to find a real solution.  If we took all of the energy that is used to attack, from one side or the other, and channeled it into a common effort, I am convinced that Americans (not so called hyphened Americans) could find the answer.

As a friend of mine would say “put on your big boy/girl pants and get to work.

I’m War Weary

I was born in 1943, at Schilling Army Air Corps Base, during a war.  I don’t remember much about that war; my Aunt talked about it and at one time she talked about the Germans and Russians having a big battle.  

My Dad was in the Army and played in the Army band.  I have a picture of me standing beside the ‘Freedom Train’ in Seattle, when I was about 4 years old.  So my first environment was a war environment.

My next recollection of war was when General Eisenhower promised if he was elected President, he would bring the ‘boys home from Korea’.  I later learned the depth, insanity and cruelty of the Korean War from history books and of course M.A.S.H.

After Korea (which actually was called a Police Action) there were several other interventions by the United States Armed Forces and of course there was the  ‘Cold War’ which frightened me as I grew up under the threat of the Atomic Bomb, then the Hydrogen Bomb and who knows what other horrible weapons that threatened to destroy the world, using something called ‘Mutually Assured Destruction’ (MAD), which guaranteed that if Russia attacked the U.S. we would return fire and assure that neither would survive.  Growing up under that threat, defined by the following, was very frightening, even if we didn't understand the total impact that such an action would have:

Mutually assured destruction, or mutual assured destruction (MAD), is a doctrine of military strategy and national security policy in which a full-scale use of high-yield weapons of mass destruction by two or more opposing sides would cause the complete annihilation of both the attacker and the defender. It is based on the theory of deterrence where the threat of using strong weapons against the enemy prevents the enemy's use of those same weapons. The strategy is a form of Nash equilibrium in which neither side, once armed, has any incentive to initiate a conflict or to disarm.

I was in High School when I realized that all the air raid drills of elementary school, where we were sent to ‘air raid ditches’, were nothing more than training us, in case of attack, to “go calmly to the prepared mass graves”.  Talk about a precursor for P.T.S.D.!!!

Next came the Cuban Missile Crisis and of course the undeclared war known as Viet Nam.  Since then, there has been Bosnia, Kuwait, twice in Iraq, Afghanistan, and small attacks and deployments throughout the Middle East and Africa; all because the United States wants to preserve the rights of the oppressed……which is a good thing but ‘too much is too much’!  The time has come for us (the United States) to stop being the lead Policeman for the world.  Cooperative ventures with other Nations are a good thing, but let someone else take the lead, and let’s use the bulk of our Armed Forces to protect our boarders in the same manner that other Countries do.

The issue of declaring war against terrorism is certainly in our best interest but we do not need to be the only, the largest or the primary defender.  Frankly, when I watch the barbaric actions of ISIS or ISIL, I am angered; when I hear supposedly well educated people claim “well the Christians were just as bad” ( as if to dismiss or ignore such acts) I am saddened by their stupidity.  Indeed, the Crusades were awful, and the barbaric actions of Christians and later the Nazis are not to be excused; nor are any violent actions against any religious group or race of people, in the name of another group race or religion, acceptable to me.

Step up, other nations! Arab States….. take note of what Jordan has done!  They are willing to hit hard but can’t do it alone.  ISIS or ISIL is not acting according to what they claim as Muslim beliefs and practices.  They are acting as barbarians and are, attempting to force ‘their brand’ of life on not just non-Muslims, but on other Muslims as well.  I would hope that mankind would have matured, since the Crusades – but maybe not.

Syria, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iran, Iraq and other Muslim States; can’t you see that the world is turning against all of you because of what ISIS or ISIL is doing?  Show the rest of the world that you oppose such acts too!  Step up, take the lead and wipe this ‘cancer’ out!  If you do, I and many others in America would support you in many ways.  But again, frankly some of us are ‘war weary’ and are not willing to take the lead any longer.

Many detractors will say that our involvement around the world is a Democrat issue and others will say a Republican issue.  The truth of the matter is that the issue is not patrician.  The issue is arrogance and economic; traits possessed by Democrats and Republicans ….. and those who won’t take sides.

“That’s the way we’ve always done it” is the battle cry of the insane, not a responsible leadership of a free Country,

Polarization in the Season of Peace

Here we go again!  As if we didn't have enough controversy in this Country already, now we have the annual gripe festival called “I’m Better Than You”.

·      IN THIS CORNER ARE THE YOU ARE ALL WRONG BECAUSE JESUS WASN’T BORN ON DECEMBER 25^TH CROWD, WEARING A SMUG LOOK ON THEIR FACE AND THEIR NOSE POINTING UP IN THE AIR!

·      IN THE OTHER CORNER ARE THE HOW DARE YOU NOT SAY MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ME YOU HEATHEN CROWD, WEARING A TILTED HALO AND EYES POINTING IN A DOWNWARD DIRECTION TO LOOK UPON THOSE WHO ARE DEEMED TO BE DISCIPLES OF THE UNFAITHFUL AND  INFERIOR  IN ALL WAYS!

I’D ASK YOU TO SHAKE HANDS AND COME OUT FIGHTING, BUT IT’S NOT LIKELY THAT YOU WILL EVEN BE IN THE SAME ROOM TOGETHER AND YOU START FIGHTING LONG BEFORE THE EVENT!

DING! ROUND 2014

For crying out loud!  What is wrong with you people?  Of course Jesus wasn't born on December 25^th, but so what?  All the Presidents of the United States were not born on the 3^rd Monday in February, but we observe that day to have large sales on cars, trucks, mattresses and other things – oh, and to remember the births of the Presidents.

Christmas was originally a pagan holiday?  No, but there were pagan celebrations around that time a long time ago!!  By the way, the celebration of birthdays was originally a pagan observance!  Another BTW: Christmas wasn't celebrated by the original Christians, although they did celebrate Resurrection Sunday, which some continue to call Easter (a pagan word).

For those of you who despise Catholics……who do you think assigned Christmas as a church observance?  Hmm.

One final rant: Christians believe in what is commonly called the ‘Golden Rule’, which says treat others in a manner that you would like to be treated.  Jewish adherents believe in the concept of avoiding Lashon Hora (the evil tongue), yet every year, I hear and read both groups violating their own tenants.  Oy vay! (what's wrong with you nut cases)?

And so they don’t feel like they've been left out: to the atheists, secularists and agnostics – why to you get so angry about the celebrations that you don’t believe in?  If you don’t believe it, what in the name of nothing or maybe something are you afraid of?

Grow up….all of you!  Put your big boy/girl or unisex pants on and take some responsibility for supporting this season that among other themes is the concept of ‘peace’. 

This may come as a surprise to some of you, but your beliefs do not make you better than anyone or any other group of people with different beliefs.  And in the United States, we are allowed to have different beliefs, regardless of what our leaders seem to be saying these days.

Now that I have ticked off a large majority of readers (if they have read this far) let me wish all of you a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Season’s Greetings and more important I wish  that all of your ridiculous arguments and detestation you have caused within your work place, schools, families and friends, dissolve leaving nothing but Peace, Tolerance and Acceptance of others.